SPAIN: Spain and Poland pledged yesterday to join forces in a fight to keep their voting rights in the European Union, which are to be diminished under a proposed draft of the EU constitution.
Spanish Foreign Minister Ms Ana Palacio and her Polish counterpart, Mr Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, said the EU's new constitution should retain complicated voting rules contained in the Nice Treaty.
The treaty gives Poland and Spain 27 votes each at meetings of the EU's decision-making Council of Ministers, two less than Germany, which has twice their respective populations.
Its advocates argue that the current voting system protects mid-size and smaller EU nations from being dominated by large states such as Germany and France.
"We believe the current voting system should be kept since it seems to be the most fair voting system," Ms Palacio told a news conference in Warsaw.
"We note an identical position in terms of the EU voting system," Mr Cimoszewicz said.
Under a constitutional treaty proposed by a panel chaired by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, EU decisions would be ratified if backed by at least half of member-states representing at least 60 per cent of the EU's population.
Leaders of present and future member-states will start debating the proposal in October. Poland is the largest of 10 set to join the EU next May.